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Freedom Robotics receives $6.6 million in seed funding

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Freedom Robotics, which provides cloud and on-device software for monitoring, control and management of robots and robotic fleets, has closed a $6.6m seed round.

The funding was led by Initialized Capital, with Toyota AI Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, Andrew Miklas from S28 Capital, and James Lindenbaum, alongside existing investors Green Cow Ventur­e Capital, Justin Kan, Josh Buckley, Kevin Mahaffey, and Arianna Simpson.

Freedom Robotics creates tools and infrastructure that all robotics companies require but are not core to their product or value creation.

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Ethics in AI: Gaining the public’s trust and loyalty

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The ethical use of AI is becoming fundamental to winning people’s trust, a new study from the Capgemini Research Institute has found.

As organisations progress to harness the benefits of AI, consumers, employees and citizens are watching closely and are ready to reward or punish behaviour.

Those surveyed said that they would be more loyal to, purchase more from, or be an advocate for organisations whose AI interactions are deemed ethical.

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When Automation Works Alongside Humans

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When we talk about automation, we often imagine a future in which everything we do will be almost entirely handled by machines. Cars will drive themselves. Management decisions will be handed over to an AI. Even the creative arts might one day be taken over by robots.

But for the time being, automation isn’t quite there. And so, some compromise between machine and human worker is needed. A synergy between the two has already yielded great results – just think about an autopilot guiding a plane for the majority of a flight, and human pilot intervening only for take-off and landing.

A more commonplace example of machine-assistance comes in the form of a spell-checker on a word-processing program. And these are getting more sophisticated. Apps like Grammarly and ProWritingAid not only identify grammatical or spelling errors; they now also identify more stylistic problems, and help us to make writing clearer and more concise, even when it isn’t technically wrong. [Read more…] about When Automation Works Alongside Humans

BMW provides insight into how it uses artificial intelligence in production

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise in automotive production. Since 2018, the BMW Group has been using various AI applications in series production.

One focus is automated image recognition: In these processes, artificial intelligence evaluates component images in ongoing production and compares them in milliseconds to hundreds of other images of the same sequence.

This way, the AI application determines deviations from the standard in real time and checks, for instance, whether all required parts have been mounted and whether they are mounted in the right place.

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Robert Bosch Venture Capital leads growth funding round in MegaRobo

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Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, is leading a growth financing round in MegaRobo. 

The Chinese high-tech robotic company with over 100 employees is headquartered in Beijing and integrates cutting-edge machine vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide modular automation solutions for lab automation, smart retail and light industrial sectors.

“MegaRobo’s technology increases efficiency in production automation. Already today, robots from MegaRobo are used for special applications in the end-of-line production of household appliances at Bosch”, says RBVC managing director Dr Ingo Ramesohl.

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Samsung Electronics introduces high-speed NPU solution for AI deep learning

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Deep learning algorithms are a core element of artificial intelligence (AI) as they are the processes by which a computer is able to think and learn like a human being does.

A Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is a processor that is optimised for deep learning algorithm computation, designed to efficiently process thousands of these computations simultaneously.

Samsung Electronics last month announced its goal to strengthen its leadership in the global system semiconductor industry by 2030 through expanding its proprietary NPU technology development.

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AMP Robotics launches new AI dual-robot system for the recycling industry

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AMP Robotics, a pioneer in artificial intelligence and robotics for the recycling industry, has launched its new AMP Cortex dual-robot system (DRS) focused on material recovery in municipal solid waste, electronic waste, and construction and demolition.

The AMP Cortex DRS expands on its existing product line of high-speed recycling robotics guided by the AMP Neuron AI platform and uses two high-performance robots that rapidly sort, pick, and place materials at a speed of 160 pieces per minute.

AMP Neuron uses computer vision and machine learning to recognise different colours, textures, shapes, sizes, and patterns to identify material characteristics.

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How AI Could Boost Business Customer Service

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From forecasts to spam filters, artificial intelligence has long been used to help companies across industries. Within recent years, it’s begun to play a key role in a major business area: customer service. 

Though it’s widely seen as a human-led sector, this form of tech could simplify a number of B2C tasks, likely boosting overall client experience as a result. In turn, this may very well improve brand reputation as well as profit turnover.

Let’s explore the main ways in which AI stands to enhance customer service within a business. [Read more…] about How AI Could Boost Business Customer Service

Christie’s auction house and Hyundai host art and artificial intelligence exhibition

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Prestigious auction house Christie’s recently hosted an art exhibition with a difference – the subject of this one was the impact of artificial intelligence on all aspects of the art world.

The 2019 Art+Tech Summit: The AI Revolution brought together thought leaders, industry experts, and artists for a series of lectures and panel discussions.

Produced in conjunction with Christie’s Education and presented by Hyundai, the summit facilitated lively conversation on emerging trends and predictions facing the future of our business and provided a platform for feedback and cultivating new ideas. [Read more…] about Christie’s auction house and Hyundai host art and artificial intelligence exhibition

Volvo Group partners with Nvidia on AI platform for autonomous trucks

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The Volvo Group has signed an agreement with Nvidia to jointly develop the decision-making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines.

Using Nvidia’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways.

The solution will be built on Nvidia’s full software stack for sensor processing, perception, map localisation and path planning, enabling a wide range of possible autonomous driving applications, such as freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, public transport, construction, mining, forestry and more.

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